I HAVE something in common with both Elon Musk and Madonna as we were all married by the same minister in roughly the same place.

Not at the same time obviously and I didn’t marry either of them but it’s a fact all the same.

Our lives have all taken a rather different turn since then and our paths have never crossed before, during or after and are unlikely to now.

Madonna went on to grow old disgracefully, while Elon Musk doesn’t seem to do anything else but court controversy on an almost daily basis but both could rightly be declared successes in their own chosen fields.

Sadly that is the extent of my celebrity links apart from being offered an olive by a well known actress on a flight once, but that’s another story.

Elon Musk is, of course, desperately trying to send people into space for vast sums of money, but he has been beaten to that by that other shy and retiring billionaire, Sir Richard Branson, who has crossed the final frontier.

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Virgin Galactic’s first commercial space flight took off from New Mexico on Thirsday and successfully carried three passengers to the edge of space.

Not into space, but the edge of it which I’m not really sure counts, but that’s by the by.

Antiguan mother and daughter duo Keisha Schahaff, 46 and Anastatia Mayers, 18 and retired British Olympian Jon Goodwin, 80, made history for the Richard Branson-founded company, becoming its first commercial crew who were not trained astronauts or researchers to orbit.

Ms Schahaff and Ms Mayers boldly went after winning free tickets for the once-in-a-lifetime commercial trip in a sweepstake on a Virgin Atlantic flight.

Mayers is the second youngest person to travel to space and is in her second year at the University of Aberdeen studying Philosophy and Physics.

But Mr Goodwin purchased his seat for $250,000 in 2005, which is rather a lot of money for what is effectively a day-long jolly.

I’d expect to walk on the moon and dine on the cheese it is made out of, while quaffing a nice red at the very least for that sort of outlay.

At the apex of the flight, the spaceplane “feathered” its wings open and hovered above our planet’s atmosphere, allowing the crew to experience weightlessness and incredible views of the final frontier for a few minutes.

The mission, dubbed “Galactic 02”, is another milestone for spaceflight, allowing civilians to experience what was once only a dream for them.

Virgin Galactic claim it has already booked a backlog of 800 customers vying for their chance to go to space, which was made possible by the company’s inaugural mission in June.

Tickets were originally sold for $250,000 but have since increased to $450,000.

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The price of rocket fuel being what it is and all that. All this actually proves beyond all reasonable doubt is that there is such a thing as having too much money.

As we saw earlier this year when five people lost their lives when a sub exploded whilst attempting to explore the wreck of the Titanic.

These tickets cost $250,000 per person too so only very rich people can apply.

Quite why they would is anyone’s guess but I suppose if money is no object then three weeks in Mauritius just won’t cut it.

There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with having vast wealth, it’s what you do with it and how you act when you have it that counts.

Many billionaires such as Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates choose to give the majority of it away to good causes.

You only have to walk around his home city of Dunfermline to see the enduring legacy of Carnegie’s philanthropic nature to this day.

Other billionaires such as John Paul Getty got even richer by being tighter than two coats of paint, with his frugality even extending to negotiating the ransom to free his kidnapped grandson.

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John D Rockefeller is generally regarded as being the richest person ever and he was only stopped from increasing his wealth by a court ordering the break-up of his Standard Oil.

To gauge the sheer scale of the firm, the biggest oil firms in the worlds such as Esso, Mobil, Chevron and Amoco were all formed from the split.

But some just simply lose their fortune. Not like down the back of the sofa but by spending and investing their way to oblivion. This happened to railway pioneer Cornelius Vanderbilt’s wealth, which was lost by the sheer extravagance of his family within 50 years of his death.

Hopefully this misfortune will not befall either Richard Branson or Elon Musk but playing at a space race makes it a distinct possibility.